A&E is showing a series called Bates Motel, which could be subtitled "How Norman Got That Way". He's 17 and the mother (Vera Farmiga) is very much alive. It shows on Monday nights, but since it's A&E, there are repeats scattered through the week.

AMC changed its corporate mind and renewed The Killing, which comes with a promise that this time the mystery will be solved by the end of the season. It's scheduled to start in a couple of months.

AMC’s back-from-the-dead crime show The Killing has a return date. Season 3 will debut on Sunday, June 2 at 8 p.m. with a two-hour premiere.

The rain-and-murder drama series brings back stars Mireille Enos (Sarah Linden) and Joel Kinnaman (Stephen Holder) along with new cast members Peter Sarsgaard, Elias Koteas and Amy Seimetz. The story picks up a year after the close of the Rosie Larsen case with Sarah no longer working as a detective. But when her ex-partner Stephen’s search for a runaway girl leads him to discover a gruesome string of murders that connects to one of her previous murder investigations, she is drawn back into the job.

AMC declined to renew The Killing after its weak second season performance. But after Fox TV Studios shopped the title around to other outlets, including Netflix, and both sides got back to the negotiating table and worked out a deal for another season.

Only Linden and Holder are retained from the original cast. Everyone else is new.

Yes, lots...some Asian, some European, and even some American. Oregon has a couple of dozen port cities. Didn't you once say Linden was working at some dead-end job at the beginning of the 3rd season, Swedish version?

Yes, she'd more or less been demoted and was thinking of retiring. But then her old boss contacted her and hey presto, there she was, back in action - a daughter of an owner of a big shipping line had disappeared...

Has anyone been watching Da Vinci's Demons? I never knew Leonardo was such a smartass. But the Borgias are back in all their sleazy glory, and we don't have to listen to Phillip on Survivor any more. That's a bright side.